About Me

Kim

Hi! I'm Kim- a wife, momma, daughter, sister, friend. I love UK, going out for a good glass of wine, cooking, spending too much time on pinterest, and making new memories. I love my life and you're welcome to read about it!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I just can't seem to be here this week. My head is already at the beach... which makes for an interesting work week for sure. I was off work yesterday for a Dr. appointment and I had to run a few errands. Now I just have to get through the rest of today, Wednesday, and Thursday and I am home free until next Wednesday. Yes, you heard that right... 5 whole days off work. Sigh. Pure bliss I tell ya'.

So excuse me if I don't have much to say until I get back. I have lotsta do... lists to make, shopping to do, packing, and snuggling with the hubs before I leave him to hold down the fort while I am gone (heres hoping the dishes don't overflow and the laundry basket doesn't explode). I'll be sure to tell you all about it when I get back! Until then my brain is officially on the beach with my toes in the sand and a drink in my hand!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Sorry it has taken me so long in between posts! Between blogger hiatus and me forgetting to take pictures of my grocery cart this past Sunday, I was kind of putting of the posts. Blogger fail, I know!
If you read Stephanie's original post about the eating rules please don't think you can't do it. If I can do it, then you most certainly can do it. If you want some answers to some really good questions then you can find some answers in this Live It questions post that she did where she answers questions about fruit, exercise, and even what her typical meals look like.

My biggest advice for starting this is PLAN PLAN PLAN! Each weekend I sat down and jotted down what we were going to eat for dinner and lunches each week and then built my grocery list from there. It was pretty simple especially since I was doing this already each week, I was just shifting the focus. Each meal typically had a lean meat and a side of veggies. Growing up with a great cook for a mom (and living in the south probably has something to do with it) I had to get away from the thinking that you have to have 3 sides with every meal. You totally don't. D'uh on my part.

This is where I really wish I had that picture of my grocery cart. My hubs and I are kind of grocery snobs with our cart full of fresh vegetables and meat. That's it. No boxed dinners or frozen prepared meals. Stay away from those! Not only are they not healthy for you as far as calories and fat, they are also full of perservatives. And don't worry about the time you save by buying those boxed meals. Really, are you more worried about having an extra 10 minutes to sit on your butt or your health? It's a no brainer for me.

I will admit the first two weeks of eating this way is the hardest because in those 2 weeks you can only have meat and veggies. But once you can add the fruit back in, it really is a piece of cake. Once you go without sweets, eating the fruit again tastes so sweet and completely satisfies those cravings.

I promise to do better next Sunday and actually take a picture of our shopping cart. Hmmm I may even have to set a reminder on my phone! :)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I mentioned in the previous post that hubs and I have CHANGED the way we eat. I say it that way because what started off as "just a diet" has lead to just changing our life styles, how we shop, and how I cook. I am, by no means, any type of expert at nutrition or exercise but I did want to put out there what worked for us!

Last year, hubs and I were married in July (right in the middle of bathing suit season, yikes) and I didn't really do a pre-wedding fitness plan. I don't really care that I didn't because it's not like I was wearing a thong walking up the aisle, but around December (you know, the holidays) that I really started noticing a change in my body. As I have said before, I love love LOVE to cook. I love to scour the internet for new recipes and would often surprise hubs when we got home with braised short ribs with goat cheese polenta or some other really decadent dinner. My stomach was getting happy but the fact that I could no longer fit into my jeans was becoming a problem!

I was blog surfing one day and found this post at a BEAUtiful Mess and got really interested! It seemed really hard to do but possible. Plus her success spoke for itself. I can give that stuff up to lose 15 pounds. It really helped that my husband was in on it too. That meant only one grocery list and someone to be accountable with... SCORE!

So far (since January) I have lost 15 pounds and the hubs has lost around 20. The best part is we are indulging when we want and still keeping it off.

I won't go into all the details in this post, but I will post some about how we started and what our typical week looks like with food and exercise. Stay tuned!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

This past Saturday we ventured to downtown Louisville, at 6 in the morning mind you, so that the hubs could run in this years Derby mini-marathon. Yes, that would be 13.1 miles of running goodness (or torture if you're talking to me). Fortunately for my hubs, he loves to run which makes this the perfect little tradition for him. I tried to train for it last year but soon found out I love to lay on the couch and cook dinner more. I digress.

Anyway, my hubs and I have been getting back into shape since the beginning of the year. We have CHANGED our eating habits and exercise at least 3 days a week. This has helped him get in such great shape for this years race... and it paid off! His time from last year was around an hour and 45 minutes and this year he ran it in 1:33:51 which is awesome. I was such the proud wifey cheering from the sidelines!

This next picture is a bit distorted because I took it from my phone while he was running. You wouldn't believe how many people run in this mini marathon/full marathon. I'm talking 15,000+. Nick was in group B (based on your running times the faster you are the closer to the front you get) and I promise you it took 20 minutes for people to just get through the starting line because they were in group F or more.

The finish line was a street over. Basically the whole race was a big loop around downtown Louisville.

I snapped this right as he was getting ready to cross the finish line. He was checking his watch to see if his time matched the finish line time. Every runners bib has a chip on it so it automatically starts when you cross the starting line and finish line. Therefore, the finish line clock might be off by a couple of minutes. Your official time is your bib time.

After the race and after getting his medal (which all runners get) he was exhausted but we treated ourselves to breakfast at Toast on Market when we left. It was extremely hard work watching people run 13.1 miles. He He.

﻿

Distance

HALF MAR

Clock Time

1:36:55

Chip Time

1:33:51

Overall Place

257 / 11383

Gender Place

222 / 4952

Division Place

37 / 630

Age Grade

63.1%

10K

44:18

Pace

7:10

I am so proud of him! And doesn't he look cute in his outfit? He likes to coordinate :)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

I've been trying to post this for days but for some reason our home computer is putting up a fight. Grrrr. As you know, last week the hubs and I took some days off of work to relax and enjoy some of the things happening around the city during Derby week. It was much needed but went by way too fast. Boo.

On Thursday we woke up and decided to catch the matinee of Water for Elephants.

It was fantastic. I was honestly a bit hesitant because I read this book about 4 years ago and it quickly became one of my favorite books of all time. I loved it which means that surely you are going to be disappointed in the Hollywood remake, right? Wrong! From what I can remember this movie was pretty spot on which makes me happy. The hubs even enjoyed it too (even though he wanted to be all macho and just say it was alright).

Of course I set my alarm for 4:00 am on Friday to watch the Royal Wedding! How could I not, it's history people! It just felt cool to be tuned in with the whole world to watch it go down. I loved seeing all the hats and fascinators and I must say that English men really know how to wear a suit. I think I like the English version a bit better than the American one. Case in point. American vs. English.

Ok, that might be a bad example because he looks great in both. But you get my point. The English version is just more fancy. I dig it. The highlight though was anticipating Kate's dress and she didn't disappoint. She was gorgeous and conveyed everything that a princess should mixing classic and modern and staying true to who she is.

image via OK Magazine

She got it just right and it was worth waking up insanely early to see those two get married. I have to say my favorite part was when William and Harry were standing with their backs to her as she was walking up the aisle and they kept turning around to look at her. Then when she stood beside William at the alter you can read his lips when he said "You look really beautiful". I die. So sweet. I also loved that he leaned in toward her father and said "This was supposed to be a small family affair". He's got a sense of humor to boot. I love fairy tales (and yes I believe in them... I totally got mine).

After I took a nap, it turned out be a beautiful day so we ventured to the Chow Wagon on the Louisville Waterfront. They had to move it this year due to the high river water but it was still the same ole' greasy carny food that I adore! We sat down with some good drinks and a funnel cake and enjoyed some music. It was heaven. Lucky for you that it is still going on all this week and you can go get some good food and listen to some great free concerts.

Here is what I mean by high river. This is a picture that we snapped on my phone while taking a little walk downtown on Thursday. Just look how high that water is on that lamp post/street sign. Yowzers.

Here is a sneak peek at what we did on Saturday. You only get a glimpse because I am pretty sure the hubs deserves an entire post dedicated to his greatness. That'll come later.

For the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday we started and worked on some house projects that I am loving. Too bad we hit a few snags that extended the time to get them done. What originally started as a weekend project has turned into a 3 week project. We aren't procrastinators or anything :) But I'll have to share those when they are finished... they're almost there.

All in all we had a fantastic weekend just doing what we wanted to do. We all need more extended weekends like that, don't you think?

Monday, May 2, 2011

This might be a confusing post but I am going to try to get out some thoughts. This may even come out a little nonsensical anyway because I'm a little conflicted at the moment. I am sure we all know about the news that came from President Obama last night... it was BIG news. Admittedly I didn't know until this morning while I was getting ready for work but I will say that my first thoughts were that of happiness and some sense of relief. Immediately people are stating that the world is now a better place because Osama is dead. That, as Americans, we should feel pride and some sense of accomplishment that we got our revenge for Sept 11th. It wasn't until I was reading a friends comments on Facebook that I really felt guilt over those feelings. In her post she simply asked that we think about Proverbs 24:17-18 which states "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Or the Lord will see it and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him." This verse literally put me in my place and how awesome is it that God puts people in your path to make you think. Why is it that we rejoice when a brother comes to know Christ but are still rejoicing when we know that someones heart was lost and not with the Lord? That breaks my heart. Yes, Osama was a bad person and I am not denying that. Yes, the world might be a bit safer but my safety is still not guaranteed.
Bottom line is this... it is done. I understand the feelings of many across America. I just ask that you stop and think of this perspective too.

*EDIT: Please take the time to click here and read THIS post. It conveys exactly what I am trying to say...only way better and much more in depth. This post rocks.